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A gold digger is an informal term for:

A woman who associates with or marries a man chiefly for material gain

What would the gold digger's man be called? A mark? A sugar daddy?

Edit: I'm editing after my sugar daddy term has been reposted a couple of times, strangely with great success.
I'd like a term for a man being targeted by the gold digger. So obviously as I listed sugar daddy in the question I felt that it was unsatisfactory; for example it works poorly here:

He's her sugar daddy.

While this is very accurate for a gold digger's man. You cannot take from this that he's being targeted, it even sounds like he's doing the targeting. This is closer:

He's her mark.

It's clear that he is being targeted. But unless the gold digger is also an assassin it seems a bit unclear what he's being targeted for.

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    Woah! What happened to all the comments? I don't see a note on them being purged?
    – Jonathan Mee
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 13:49
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    "Butter and Egg Man" was a term in the 1920's to describe a big spender from out of town, including one who would spend big on the right young lady. To get the sense of the term I suggest going to Youtube and looking up Butter and Egg Man and listening to a few renditions of the Louis Armstrong classic.
    – Al Maki
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 15:48
  • @AlMaki Yeah, this was mentioned earlier in the comments that were removed :( If you feel like posting it as an answer I'd upvote.
    – Jonathan Mee
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 17:12
  • @EdwinAshworth While I could only argue that this differs in nuance, I'd rather this wasn't the duplicate. I'd rather that abandoned question was duplicated to this one instead, for 2 reasons: 1) It doesn't even have an accepted answer :( and 2) It's not something that could be found by an English search.
    – Jonathan Mee
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 18:00

8 Answers 8

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A gold digger's man must be a goldmine.

Gold digging, engaging in romantic relationships for money rather than love

Gold mining, mining for the element gold

Wikipedia

Girl's got a goldmine and he's so fine.

Girl's got a goldmine and he's all mine.

Pointer Sisters

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    As poetic as this sounds, it's not in common usage, and could mean something closer to "windfall" - the fella in question is a wonderful catch that she stumbled into.
    – RDFozz
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 17:17
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Sugar Daddy

Not strictly one word - but a common term for a older, richer counterpart of a gold digger. Usually used for more willing participants - older men who are just glad to be dating someone more attractive and younger.

"Mark" might also fit - but is usually used to refer to the targets of con artists, rather than women dating mainly for material reasons, so I'd use in in situations where the gold digger is more predatory

It may be a bit obscure but "Ticket" - as in ticket to the gravy train

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    A sugar daddy showers his love interest with lavish things. A rich man who lives modestly wouldn't be a sugar daddy, even though a gold-digger might be interested in him (for, say, his inheritance).
    – AdamO
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 13:51
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In Eastern Europe — where I live — the term typically used is sponsor.

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What would the gold digger's man be called? A mark? A sugar daddy?

Sugar daddy (reversing the roles = sugar momma)

Mark is not (at least not always) appropriate.
Mark implies that one person is a victim (parasitic relationship).

I have witnessed both gold digger + sugar daddy and gold digger + sugar momma relationships where the 'non-digger' knows what is going on and is not bothered by it.
I would call this a symbiotic relationship... one person may be supplying (a lot of) money, but that person wouldn't say that they are a victim - i.e. both people in the relationship appear to see the relationship as it is; neither is a 'mark'.

Another poster gave a song reference, a better one is: Fancy by Reba McEntire.

"Just be nice to the gentlemen Fancy and they'll be nice to you."

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    I must say I don't see the reason for the downvote. The other answer which borrowed from the attempt I listed right in the question seems to have garnered endless upvotes. Somehow this answer which has at least managed to put some effort into using my attempted answer has a downvote :/
    – Jonathan Mee
    Commented Mar 20, 2018 at 19:55
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    @JonathanMee just a guess, the other answer was submitted about 16 hours before this so maybe people are down voting because it could be a duplicate answer?
    – BruceWayne
    Commented Mar 20, 2018 at 22:17
  • @BruceWayne To be clear I offered this answer in my original question, obviously indicating that I needed improvement on the term. Yet somehow using this term that I wasn't happy with from the question has met with tremendous success... I'm not sure why another copy should face any different.
    – Jonathan Mee
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 4:07
  • @JonathanMee I was saying why I thought 'mark' was not a good term. I see your edit, it is a good clarification - I did understand your meaning. I used Sugar Daddy again because I believe it is the best word. You seem to think the opposit (in above comment and orig post), that is fine. Maybe you mean a specific instance where a woman is looking only for money, in this case mark may be better - but only because there isn't a better word. Hope that helps.
    – J. Chris Compton
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 14:41
  • @J.ChrisCompton Yup, I think the absence of a generally accepted answer is evidence that there isn't a specific word that fits. And yes, Sugar Daddy does seem to encompass the set of Gold Digger significant others. Obviously this term was unsatisfactory to me, as clarified by my edit, because it doesn't indicate that aware/unaware this man is a target.
    – Jonathan Mee
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 14:55
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I think instead of

He's her mark

you could go with

That's her mark

referring to the person's fortune instead of the person.

I've seen that usage in a few movies about con-men who go after people for their valuables, and rather than the person, the valuables are the mark.

"That woman over there is a gold-digger and that is her mark." Said John, pointing to the man wearing a red suit.

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It sounds like you're trying to find a term that would make it clear that the young lady is a gold-digger, by only describing the man (i.e. the term "gold-digger" would not actually appear, just the term for the man, but all would be clear).

I don't think there's a common, accepted term that would specify that. I'd consider something like:

He's her ATM.

or

He's her future inheritance.

Note for other cultures: ATM stand for "Automated Teller Machine" - it's the machine that lets you withdraw cash from a bank account (or cash advances from credit cards).

These both imply that she sees the man as a source of money first and foremost.

ATMs are a way to get cash without interacting with another person, as opposed to going into a bank and dealing with a teller; it implies that the "relationship" is only a way to get money.

An inheritance is something that you only get when someone dies. This implies that she's specifically in the relationship because she's waiting for him to die.

Neither states anything about the man's attitude towards the situation; both work whether the man believes she's desperately in love with him, of realizes she's in it for the money only.

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a whale – probably borrowed from the financial industry, meaning a big investor.

a bear – specifically referenced in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) in the context of 3 gold diggers setting a 'bear trap', and only needing to trap 1 bear.

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I'm 75 years old, and a male gold digger was called a gigolo in my day (at least in Ohio).

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    I like your answer, but I don't believe the question asked for a name meaning a "male gold-digger". It was asking for a name for the kind of man a gold-digger is interested in romantically: a "gold-digger's man"... I think pimp would also work, generally speaking. I seriously considered that for my answer, and maybe I would have gotten a better response had I done so.
    – Bread
    Commented Mar 20, 2018 at 22:44
  • In France, a gigolo was principaly defined as a young-ish male providing escort services (with as little or as much as that entails) to older richer ladies. Now most likely out of this crowd, a few of them met a lady they wanted to stick with (or thought they had an opportunity to exploit) and transited to a more gold-digging behaviour.
    – Hoki
    Commented Aug 30 at 10:40

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